I. kəˈmit, usu -id.+V verb
( committed ; committed ; committing ; commits )
Etymology: Middle English committen, from Latin committere to connect, entrust, from com- + mittere to send — more at smite
transitive verb
1.
a. : to put into charge or keeping : give in trust : entrust , consign
commit all executive, legislative, and judicial powers to one man — A.T.Vanderbilt
b.
(1) : to place in or send officially to confinement or other place of punishment
commit a criminal to prison
: sentence to punishment
committed Anne Boleyn to a criminal death — Francis Hackett
(2) : to consign legally to a mental institution
a patient committed by the court to a state hospital
c. : to consign to a permanent form or to record for preservation (as by writing down or memorizing)
turning the scenes … over in his mind … before he started committing his ideas to paper — Ernest Newman
commit a poem to memory
d. : to put into a place for disposal or safekeeping
commit the papers to the fire
commit his body to the earth
e. : to refer (as a legislative bill) to a committee for consideration and report
2. : do , perform
convicted of committing crimes against the state
commit suicide
committing an even greater folly — O.S.Nock
3.
a. obsolete : connect , join
b. : to bring (a force) into battle : assign to a military action
should … Company C be unable to take the objectives, then Company A will be committed — Infantry Journal
c. : to expose to risk or danger
committing his letters to the dangers of censorship — Marcia Davenport
d.
(1) : to obligate or bind to take some moral or intellectual position or course of action
a resolution committing the party to build 300,000 houses a year — B.C.L.Keelan
this belief in science, to which our forefathers then committed themselves — A.J.Toynbee
(2) : to pledge to some particular course or use : contract or bind by obligation to a particular disposition
the government has committed 135 million dollars worth of surplus commodities in foreign barter activity
(3) : to express the opinion of : reveal the views of
cautiously refusing to commit himself on any controversial subject
intransitive verb
1. obsolete : to perform an act that is an offense (as illicit sexual intercourse)
commit not with man's sworn spouse — Shakespeare
2. : to consign a person to prison
officers without power to commit
Synonyms:
entrust , confide , consign , relegate : commit is the widest term; it may express merely the general idea of delivering into another's charge, or it may have the special sense of transfer to a superior power or to an agency for custody
on landing in Boston in 1872, my father and I were able safely to commit our trunk to the expressman — George Santayana
in some districts of Hungary women … run around the herd before they drive it out and commit it to the care of the herdsmen — J.G.Frazer
into thy hands I commit my spirit — Ps 31:5 (Revised Standard Version)
the principal State institution for the mentally ill, caring for about 1,000 committed patients — American Guide Series: Delaware
entrust is to deliver with trust and confidence, with appeal to or security in another's good faith
all he would do was to put the investigation into the hands of a detective, and entrust him with the business of collecting evidence — Rose Macaulay
the governor is entrusted with broad executive powers — American Guide Series: New Hampshire
confide heightens suggestions of trust and good faith
the right of naturalization was therefore, with one accord, surrendered by the States, and confided to the Federal Government — R.B.Taney
our customers over there seem not to be able to confide their property to us fast enough — Charles Dickens
consign implies a delivering or transferring with or as if with formality, certification, or finality
the gaol to which he was consigned by the victorious Cavaliers — T.B.Macaulay
the orthodox consigned the heretics and the heretics consigned the bishops to eternal flames — G.M.Trevelyan
wrapping the ivory carefully in a handkerchief of fine white silk, he consigned it to his pocket — Elinor Wylie
relegate indicates consigning to a particular class, position, or sphere, often a secondary or less favored one
within three years overland staging was relegated to a secondary place in frontier life by the coming of the railroad — R.A.Billington
and it is not inherent in the astronomical category either, though it was for many years relegated there — E.M.Forster
the stylistic and philosophical difficulty of Valéry's art would seem to relegate him to a very small circle of initiates — Wallace Fowlie
II. ˈkämə̇t noun
( -s )
Etymology: alteration of comet
: the card game comet or another card game similar to and derived from it